Creative work is poor preparation for creative leadership.

While writers, designers, editors, and other creative professionals spend years learning and refining creative craft skills, those skills do nothing to prepare us for the human, organizational, and operational challenges that come with promotions to leadership. And as your responsibility grows, it’s those organizational and leadership skills that will hold you and your team back.

• How do you scale yourself and your time?
• How should you organize your team?
• How can you structure hiring, firing, and promotion?
• What do you need to know to set yourself up for success in creative leadership?

Even if you’re lucky and have had great role models along the way, leading a team of creative professionals is a daunting experience. You shouldn’t have to figure it out alone.

Author Andrew Carlson has spent over 20 years as a professional advertising creative in New York City. He has held the roles of Chief Creative Officer for Digitas North America and Chief Experience Officer for the Organic Agency, building and leading large, diverse and distributed teams of creative professionals in pitch and award-winning work.

This book is the missing manual for all the things you need to know when you stop being an individual contributor and start leading a creative team of your own.